County jails that account for the vast majority of local inmates in California have seen a marked increase in violence since they began housing thousands of offenders who previously would have gone to state prisons.

Gov. Jerry Brown and the four legislative leaders reached a compromise Monday on reducing the state’s prison population, agreeing to ask a panel of federal judges to extend the end-of-the-year deadline on releasing thousands of inmates.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday responded to a federal court order to significantly reduce California’s prison population by proposing a $315 million plan to send inmates to private prisons and empty county jail cells.

Officials say they fear for the welfare of nearly 70 inmates who have refused all prison-issued meals since the strike began July 8 over the holding of gang leaders and other violent inmates in solitary confinement that can last for decades.

A hunger strike involving several dozen inmates inside California’s prison system evolved Monday into a semantic battle between their advocates and corrections officials over how to define such an action.

California prisoners have unprotected sexual contact, forced or consensual, even if both are illegal, and this reality often leads to the spread of HIV and other diseases in prisons and in communities where felons are paroled.